My last column for this masthead sought to highlight how the wide criteria for claiming indigeneity was perhaps unintentionally leading to a lack of focus on those Indigenous Australians who are most in need.
We need to listen to those people, locally, about their needs and what they see as solutions.
You'll only get the good oil from local people on the ground.
High-profile activists who pretend because they have some indigeneity they can speak for Indigenous Australians around Australia are just expensive and unhelpful window dressing.
If you live in the very rural and remote areas of Australia, you will be well aware of the endemic and systemic disadvantage endured by Indigenous Australians.
We all know it's there. We've known for too long. We see it intermittently on our daily news feed. Well, we see some of it.
We see the looting of shops, groups roaming the streets bashing people up.
We know families and kids especially are afraid to be in the street on their own in their own town.
We feel concern for the shopkeepers whose shops are looted and must wonder if they'll ever make a decent living or be able to sell their business.
And we feel for people who want to have shops open, not boarded up. Would you buy a shop now in Alice Springs or Darwin?
Watching your news feed you might think these images reflect intermittent outbreaks of violence and lawlessness.
Yes, the reporting is intermittent. The violence and lawlessness however has been there for ages.
It's every day. But that's just part of the story.
Every day there are communities without power or water. People living in substandard even squalid conditions. Kids that don't get a chance of education.
How much pride and self worth could you muster up if you were forced to live like that?
As a kid, what would you think your chances and opportunities were?
Do you blame a kid who can see no future thinking school was a waste of time?
How much longer, how many more generations of Indigenous kids can we allow to be brought up in these circumstances?
The problems of acute disadvantage and violence may be more acute in the Northern Territory but are by no means limited to there.
It's now time to stop the hand-wringing, stop the conspicuous expressions of compassion.There is no single magic bullet but there are a few things we could do.
We love to sing along to "I am, you are, we are Australian". Now we need to put money where our mouths are.
First, we need a root-and-branch clean out of local, state and federal spending.
Brutality will be required. If any state or local government doesn't want to play ball, fine. When the collective goodwill of Australia in the form of spending comes onto the field, well, you didn't want to play ball. Tough luck.
Second, there are a myriad of Aboriginal corporations around Australia.
The message should be very simple: You don't open your books, we close our collective wallet.
There are too many Indigenous-run corporations whose inner workings are effectively in a lead safe.
There's no transparency. Why are some people getting paid quite well but outcomes remain unachieved?
Third, local, state and federal governments need to stop wanting to look good and instead be determined to do good.
More of the same is just idiocy.
Putting yet more money into the horrific vortex of ineffectiveness is fraud on the taxpayer. It should be viewed as the lowest of low.
Spending taxpayer money to make your government look caring is to me the moral equivalent of grooming.
Fourth, set up a beefed-up commission of audit with the powers of a royal commission to undertake and advise on all the above.
It would go nowhere and waste millions if it were loaded up with people who will just tell the government what they want to hear.
It would have to have bipartisan support. Here's why. The solutions are going to be expensive and go across a few terms of government at least.
The Voice shows us what happens when you don't listen outside your own bubble.
There are real benefits in bringing good minds together to find a solution.
A body like a commission of audit would bring together a wider range of views than a few royal commissioners.
A bipartisan body won't be enough. We'll need the right people. You need people with warm hearts and hard heads. Very hard.
They need to be old enough not to give a rat's about the volume of criticism and wise enough to listen when there's a valid point.
Whatever body you establish will need some forensic accountants and some experienced public servants.
READ MORE:
You'll need to watch out for those who will want to push their own agenda. Having served on a commission of audit, I can assure you agenda pushers have no shame.
Importantly you will need genuinely local input as your lens moves around Australia. Here's what you don't need: consultants, lobbyists and Indigenous activists.
Fifth, recognise the NT government is a shambles. They've had years and years to address this issue and their failure is obvious to everyone.
It's true the territory government is desperately short on funds but that hasn't stopped them having a bloated and overpaid public service.
The government is in terrible debt and the population is declining. It would not be unkind to regard the government as dysfunctional. It's almost impossible to conclude otherwise in the current situation.
How can they recover let alone rebuild? The Commonwealth should repeal or effectively suspend the act giving the territory self-government.
In the short-term, the Commonwealth should administer it.
In the longer-term, self-government may be feasible again.
An alternative would be to join the territory with a state. It was once a part of South Australia. And one big central state might be the answer.
One thing is certain ... more of the same just isn't tenable.
- Amanda Vanstone is a former senator for South Australia, and a former Howard government Indigenous affairs minister. She writes fortnightly for ACM.
Amanda Vanstone
Amanda Vanstone is a former senator for South Australia, a former Howard government minister, and a former ambassador to Italy. She writes fortnightly for ACM.
Amanda Vanstone is a former senator for South Australia, a former Howard government minister, and a former ambassador to Italy. She writes fortnightly for ACM.
